Saturday, June 11, 2016

Hey wasn't that a great week we just went through, just chock-fulla high energy fun 'n excitement an' all??? Kinda made ya glad to be alive an' kickin' and proud that you're walking the earth during one of the most exciting and punch-packed times EVER hunh? And not only that, but you're so charged up over the fact that it's time for yet another spicy and fun installment of BLOG TO COMM, one which you've been looking forward to for quite some time eh?..............(oh shit!)

Wire-NOCTURNAL KOREANS CD-r burn (originally on Pink Flag)I hate to admit it, but this latest from Wire just ain't as good as last year's chart topper of a spin. In fact NOCTURNAL KOREANS (I've had a few dreams like that!) is kinda early 80s "new music" as they used to call that synth-laden ennui which really doesn't dredge up any good memories for this particular scribe (one who missed the late-seventies rock zeitgeist as soon as that generation toppled into rock video glitz). Still fine in its electronic drone creep fashion which doesn't really offend as much as it should, though (and I sincerely do mean this!) if you were one of those people who loathed the late-eighties Wire rebirth you've probably written 'em off long ago anyway to care so like, forget you ever read this writeup inna first place!

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The Peace-BLACK POWER CD (Now-Again, available via Forced Exposure) Bought this Zambian-spawned reissue of a mid-seventies platter by local rock 'n roll heroes the Peace on a mere whim and y'know what? I was more than pleasantly surprised, really! I often don't go out on limbs to buy these outta nowhere releases because hey, money is a scarce commodity these days but this one looked so enticing, and man does it live up to alla the hype surrounding it.

The sound quality is primitive as is the performance, but it's all garage band energy that's perhaps helped thanks to the fact that this was sourced out from surviving copies of the album which I guess weren't pressed up that hot to begin with!

Startlingly enough, BLACK POWER ain't some over-the-top afro funk Osibisa-type of release like I kinda thought it might have been but sounds pretty well settled into the usual Amerigan/English ref. pts., with hefty nods to the Rolling Stones and Beatles to be heard not to mention some groups whose names I dare not mention lest I get your hearts a-flutterin' outta control to the point of seizure. Heck, if the vocals didn't have such a thick African accent I would have thought these to have been recorded by some local suburban Amerigan teens at the local cheapo studio.

Might be worth a listen even if you tend to be jaded by all of these recent exhumations that you sometimes wish would have remained dead and buried all these years. If you need to get it on a dare well hey, then I dare ya! And I mean it too, sissy!!!

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THE KIOSK 6 CD David Keay and Laura Feathers (a.k.a. the Kiosk!) are back with some pretty wonderful repeato-riff guitar rock that recalls a whole load of past rock accomplishment and a tad bit of CHURCH OF ANTHRAX on "Destabilization in Slow Motion" t'boot! (Harmonia on "Desert of the Tartars" even!). I could dredge up the usual xyz comparisons if you like but that really won't be necessary...let's just say that if you were one of the luckies who got hold of the previous Kiosk platters this 'un continues on the same fine tradition of believable under-the-underground avant garde yet downhome rock 'n roll that I thought went kablooey long ago. If you can, really do try to latch onto one.

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Glenn Mercer-WHEELS IN MOTION CD-r burn (originally on Pravda) It would have been easier to get Frank Zappa to take a bath than it is to get me to listen to either the Feelies or any one of their various side projects. But since I was breaking wind to the caution or something like that I figured hey, why not give this McGarry burn a turn? Of course there's nothing really exciting on WHEELS IN MOTION what with Feelie Mercer's standard amerindie/altie styles and moods calmed down to Perry Como levels, but surprisingly enough I did not rip this one off the turntable in abject rage like I was wont to do only a few short decades back. Mildly pleasant and well suited to a Sunday afternoon reading of Golden Age PLASTIC MAN comics...gee I really must be goin' soft if I can't even get enough rage into my soul to have ripped this disque outta the laser launching pad and smashing it to kingdom come!

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Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds-LA ARANA ES LA VIDA CD-r burn (originally on In The Red) Hey, it sounds pure rockism authentic enough to have been some great lost seventies underground resurgence of rock artyfact, only it came out in the here and now! Low fidelity helps Congo and band present that hard-edged neo-garage sound which kinda reminds me of classic Fleshtones without the more new unto gnu wave production that didn't help some of their platters out. It even contains a cover of the Psychedelic Furs '"We Love You" and when was the last time any of us admitted to having once led that prettier'n pink band?!?!?! One to catch if they just happen to plow their way into your town, that is if they ever go that far outta their way considering the dunghole you're probably living in right now.

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Ronnie Mathews-TRIP TO THE ORIENT CD-r burn (originally on East West Records, Japan) Better'n ho-hum straight ahead piano jazz trio recording from longtime bopster Mathews who tinkles the ivories on this once rare specimen. Playing's not that far out in case you're the kinda guy who goes for this sorta music, though it's far from the lounge-y prattle that has made up a good portion of what I've heard from the "mainstream" of jazz these past few years. Made passable pleasing backdrop to the collection of BEETLE BAILEY 1966 comics that Brad Kohler sent me via Bill Shute, a review of that 'un comin' up more later than sooner considering the backload of book/moom pitcher reviews I have just waiting for you!

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ZIPPER/KING BEE CD-r burn (originally on Permanent/Whizeagle) I never sought out Fred "Lollipop Shoppe" Cole's mid-seventies album goin' under the Zipper tag if only because it'd been consistently compared to Led Zeppelin up and down the Disques du Monde catalog. Not being a big fan of the Zep by any stretch of the imagination I figured hey, why bother considering all of the groups who were also trying to sound like Zep playing on within my ear-reach. Turns out those comparisons had been right-o all along what with Cole's faux Robert Plant whine and the group's hard grind of blues into pure soundswell. In other worlds....yawn!

Although this actually sounds kinda gnarled in spots and enough to make any true blue metalloid stand up and take notice I must admit that I wouldn't want to part with any moolah to get either an original or a repressing of this particular spin. I would (and have!) done just that with the King Bee EP from '78 where Cole goes full blast into the same kinda hard punk blues drive that fits into the whole Dr. Feelgood/Eddie and the Hot Rods swerve that actually gained a little bit of notoriety back in them days. On the whole these tracks are top notch enough for my own tastes (even the Zipper stuff!) even if you're not listening for purely historical snoot purposes.

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The New Life-SINGS THE SIDEHACKERS CD-r bur (originally on Amaret Records) Well they ain't no Davie Allen and the Arrows that's for sure! It's kinda blahsville in fact, what with the New Life (what kinda name is that for a rock group...sounds like a hair restorer scam!) and their soppy numbers undoubtedly made for this movie's slobbering scenes and nothing else! Even the more "rollicking" tracks (that is, if you consider aged constipated cows trying to get the tarts out of the oven "rollicking") conjure a general douseness to the entire proceedings for a film that I woulda thought packed with action scenes and loads of biker violence! Don't get me wrong, there's some good late-sixties scrunch here but this is mostly feh music that would have made an embarrassment of any moom pitcher it woulda been tagged onto!

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Various Artists-ANOTHER MONDO AUBURN DAY CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

Short 'n sweet mostly folky-rocky collection here starting off with some related trackage from acts called Junior and the Mondos and Florian Monday and the Mondos who basically do the same thing what with their versions of "Mondo Moe" and "Mondo" sounding remarkably similar. (Reissue action on Norton might just be worth getting!) But really, Bill should include liner notes with these burns! These two acts have that good 1962-1965 (at the latest) mid-Amerigan teenage crank out sound that still appeals, though if you're one of those sophisticado rock types I tend to come across on occasion you won't understand them the same way you refuse to understand Great Shakes and LEAVE IT TO BEAVER. The rest of this ain't gonna make you wanna burn your Jefferson Airhose albums in abject shame (yeah I know, in the sixties they were perhaps one of the better Amerigan groups who took a severe tumble into the hippoid abyss once albums like BARK and MANHOLE not forgetting such wowzers as BLOWS AGAINST THE EMPIRE started cluttering up the record shelves, or something like that), but they're still fine mid-sixties Amerigan garage band acts that sure sound good next to some of the sewage that was cluttering up the airwaves within the next few years. Good selection ya got here too Bill!